Botanical/commercial classification: Gladiolus hybrida/Gladiolus or Sword Lily Plant.
Varietal denomination: cv. xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99.
The present invention relates to a novel Gladiolus plant named xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99 and belongs to the Iridaceae family. The novel plant being a hybrid was developed in a planned breeding program. The novel xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99 plant is propagated vegetatively by the use of corms and hence readily can be maintained as a stable genotype. The plant of the invention is highly ornamental and can be widely cultivated for its beautiful flowers which are of commercial and export value.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Gladiolus Plant, a member of the Gladiolus genus. The novel plant was formed by the cross of the xe2x80x98Bonfirexe2x80x99 variety (non-patented in the United States) and the xe2x80x98Aldebaranxe2x80x99 variety (non-patented in the United States). Each parent is botanically classified Gladiolus hybrida.
Gladiolus plants are important for cut flower production throughout the world. The commercial cultivation is widespread in temperate, tropical and subtropical climates. The demand of new varieties with better color, better quality flowers, and improved plant traits is always present in the floriculture trade.
In the modern garden Gladiolus cultivars come from diverse genetic parentages. They have cumulative heterozygosity for many characters inherent with the complex genetic constitution. In Gladiolus, diverse parents commonly are crossed together and the resulting cultivars and species that differ widely in chromosome numbers are also cross-fertile. In the present invention, the desirable strain obtained in the F1 generation was perpetuated vegetatively without being segregated in the following generations unlike many cultivars which are available today that may be F2, F3 to F8, etc. of a particular cross that are further blended with some additional parents at nearly every generation. Thus plants of the present invention are not allowed to segregate freely in further generations and are reproduced asexually. Because of this many available modern cultivars have become so complex that the offspring obtained by crossing them do not appear similar.
The planned breeding program that produced the new xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99 variety was carried out at the Institute of Himalayan Resources, Palampur Himachal Pradesh, India, with the goal to develop superior Gladiolus genotypes. Emasculation and pollination were conducted during the months of April and May, 1991. The resulting seeds were collected during July and August 1991 and were sown in field growing conditions during December 1991 and were covered with dry grass. The resultant seedlings were next space transplanted under field growing conditions during March and April 1992. Corms and cormels of these plants were replanted for the next four years and were continuously asexually multiplied and evaluated.
Based on the attractive color combination of the flowers, compactness of the flower spikes, number of flowers per spike, the length of flower spikes, the ruffled configuration of the flower petals, the number of flowers that remain open at a time, the number of corms and cormels produced per plant, and freedom from common diseases, a single plant of this invention was selected for further observation and evaluation. Initially, the plant was designated IHBT-GH-272 and subsequently was designated xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99.
It was found that the new Gladiolus hybrida variety of the present invention exhibits the following combination of characteristics:
(a) exhibits an erect and substantially uniform growth habit,
(b) forms in profusion on long spikes attractive flowers that are Dutch Vermillion with a center of Dresden Yellow in coloration;
(c) forms dark green leaves that contrast nicely with the bright flower coloration, and
(d) is well suited for the production of cut flowers and for growing as attractive ornamentation in the landscape.
The new variety of the present invention can be readily distinguished from its parental varieties through an inspection of the flowers. The xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99 variety displays flowers that are Dutch Vermillion with a center of Dresden Yellow. This can be compared with red flowers of the xe2x80x98Bonfirexe2x80x99 variety and the yellow flowers of the xe2x80x98Aldebaranxe2x80x99 variety.
The new variety of the present invention has been asexually reproduced at Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India through the division of corms and cormels beginning in 1992. Such asexual propagation has confirmed that the characteristics of the xe2x80x98Palampur Princessxe2x80x99 variety are firmly fixed and are reliably and stably transmitted to subsequent generations. No variants from the variety were observed.